The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case before the Supreme Court Dec. 1 presents a challenge to a Mississippi state law that places strict limits on abortions after 15 weeks, not a direct challenge to Roe. The limited question before the court is whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional.
The court has always recognized “the State has legitimate interests from the outset of the pregnancy in protecting the health of the woman and the life of the fetus.” However, the court’s jurisprudence has been a complete failure in balancing those interests with the court-created right to an abortion.
Scientific progress has given us a window into the womb, thereby destroying the foundation upon which Roe and the Supreme Court’s entire abortion jurisprudence rests. Ultrasounds tell us babies feel pain at a very early stage, have eyes and eyelids and a well-formed face at 15 weeks, limbs have developed, hands, feet with little toes and fingers, even nails, genitals, organs are fast developing and muscle tissue and bones continue to grow and become harder, making it possible to begin to move.
It is time for the Supreme Court to catch up to the 21st century. Americans overwhelmingly support banning late-term abortion and restricting it during the first trimester. States should be free to enact laws protecting life as Mississippi has done here.
Penny Morrell
state director
Concerned Women for America of Maine
Belgrade
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